Kentucky lawmakers said in a recent joint interview that they were open to legalizing medical marijuana during the state’s 30-day legislative session that kicked off this week, but lawmakers from both parties pushed back against a plan by Governor Andy Beshear (D) who will levy a tax on the drug.
“If you follow the approach, that it is a money generator, you do not think about the medicinal or therapeutic value,” said Senate President Robert Stivers II (R). The application of taxes on marijuana that is really intended for medical use said: ‘treat it differently from any other remedy, which in itself is wrong.’
Stivers, a longtime skeptic about medical marijuana, said he was recently convinced of the therapeutic benefits of THC in certain treatments, although he did not support the legalization of this session. “I’m not against that,” he said, “but I really think the leadership – and I do not hate it – should come from the federal government.”
“Let’s get the appropriate protocols and undergo the research and development as over the past year with the COVID-19 vaccinations,” Stivers added. “Like we did with the Moderna or something else, let’s go through the study, let’s get blind samples, let’s make sure we do it right.”
Stivers and other leading lawmakers, including House Speaker Dave Osborn (R), Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey (D) and House Leader Minority Leader Joni Jenkins (D) spoke during an interview with Kentucky PBS station KET that aired Monday.
The House of Representatives last year overwhelmingly passed a medical marijuana legislative bill, but sen. Whitney Westerfield (R), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pinned the bill to the committee. The coronavirus pandemic broke out in the same month, in March, and the Senate never returned to that extent.
Morgan McGarvey (D), leader of the Senate Minority Floor, said in a KET interview this week that it was ‘past time for medical marijuana in Kentucky’, and insisted that his colleagues just vote for a legislative bill.
“I just want to see it put to a vote,” he said. ‘If it passes on the floor of the Senate, wonderful. If it does not pass on the floor of the Senate, it also says something. ‘
Watch the legislators discuss medical cannabis at about 32:40 in the video below:
No Senate legislative bill has been tabled in this session yet, but McGarvey said some in his party are considering it.
A February poll last year found that nine out of ten Kentuckians support the legalization of medical marijuana and nearly six out of ten (59 percent) believe that cannabis should be “under no circumstances” legal.
McGarvey agreed with his Republican counterparts that if marijuana is legalized, it should not be taxable. “I do not think we should consider medical marijuana itself as a revenue producer for the state,” he said. “There will be some revenue if you allow medicinal marijuana to be grown and cultivated and then distributed here, but we have a ban on taxing medicine in Kentucky, and that’s something I actually advocate.”
This view conflicts with Beshear’s government proposal to legalize medical marijuana and tax the drug to bring in state revenue. ‘If it is not positive for revenue,’ he said in an earlier KET interview, recorded before the Legislative Session on December 28, ‘you can not support the administrative support needed to ensure that that’s not right. ‘
The governor says that the tax should not necessarily be levied at the point of sale of the patient, but that it could rather be imposed on producers or retailers. Yet taxes are likely to increase costs for patients.
Beshear said the money is needed to cover expenses such as inspections and regulatory enforcement. Under last year’s law, lawmakers have suggested they do not understand the capabilities of state government agencies.
“We certainly hope, as the application of this law will fall to the executive,” the governor said, “that they will talk to us about where we can house it and how to do it effectively.”
Watch the governor discuss medical cannabis at about 36:25 in the video below:
Bilingual House lawmakers apparently acknowledged in the KET interview that legalization’s primary political obstacle lies in the Senate.
“Our caucus has been behind this for many, many sessions,” said Jenkins, leader of the House Minority Floor, “and nothing has changed.”
House Speaker Osborne suggested that medical cannabis is likely to advance through his chamber again and that “there is any hope that the Senate will take it up.”
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“At the end of the day, I think the vast majority of people in our caucus, in our body and in our room, are tired of making criminals out of sick people,” he said. “You know, we prescribe drugs and opioids freely every day with far greater consequences.”
Osborne also joined the chorus of lawmakers who taxed the drug tax. “I do not completely agree with the governor on taxes,” he said. ‘We do not tax tax medicine in this state. It is inhuman to tax medicine. We made this statement as a tax policy years and years ago … To open the debate, we need to fully open the debate on the tax on pharmaceutical products. ”
Like most U.S. states, Kentucky releases prescribed but not over-the-counter medications. Although marijuana will not be regulated as a prescription drug, a medical marijuana law is likely to require patients to get a doctor’s recommendation, just like a prescription.
At the federal level, observers of drug reform are watching Kentucky in part because of the reform’s hope that any form of legalization there could encourage U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R), who represents the state, to relax his stance on cannabis. McConnell has been a constant obstacle to legalization in the Senate, and it is widely expected that it will be the deciding factor to hear marijuana legislation in 2021.
Winning this week for the Democrats in Georgia’s run-off election for two U.S. Senate seats, which was likely apparently Wednesday morning, would remove McConnell from his position as majority leader of the Senate, significantly blunting his influence on national cannabis policy and allowing the Democrats to to move easily about the reform of cannabis.
“If Democrats win the two seats,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said last month, ‘I’m pretty confident you’ll see – maybe not the most important legislation I’m looking for – but you’re going to have a relaxing time. ”
It is most likely that marijuana will be legalized in 2021
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